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Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoWill FiggA sold out Value City Arena crowd soaks up hit songs from the 1960s and '70 as Carole King hammers the piano and James Taylor plucks his guitar in a superstar double bill aimed at the baby boomer generation.

A jam-packed audience felt transported as the protagonist of
Up On The Roof last night when Carole King, the song's co-author, joined with James Taylor
in the Value City Arena:

"When this old world starts getting me down/And people are just too much for me to face/I climb
way up to the top of the stairs/And all my cares just drift right into space."

The concert aimed to recreate a time in the early '70s when the two co-headlined L.A.'s
Troubadour club - she striking out on her own after a decade of co-writing hits with and for others
and he honing the material that would make him the icon of the singer-songwriter era.

For this tour, the two reunited the era's Rolls Royce of rhythm sections: guitarist Danny
Kortchmar, bassist Leland Sklar and drummer Russ Kunkel.

At its best, the evening was a master's class in songwriting and a lesson in the durability of
the best pop music.

King is the composer of innumerable songs that define the sound of pop music, beginning with
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow, her first hit with ex-husband Gerry Goffin, for the
Shirelles in 1961. Last night, the song had a nearly worshipful tone which, despite the flaws in
its delivery, highlighted the timeless brilliance of its lyrics and melody.
Roof,
Chains,
(You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman, and
Crying in the Rain were impressive, as well.

Taylor's best originate in a different era, the product of less naive times. Sometimes mournful
and often romantic, they have offered from the start comfort and solace.

Last night, that quality threatened to make their performance nothing but nostalgia. Mostly that
was not the case, though, with Taylor improvising his bluesy phrasing of
Blossom at the opening, giving
Sweet Baby James a bare-bones treatment that allowed the folkloric richness of its lyrics
to breathe and delivering King's
You've Got A Friend with her in a way that displayed the melodic inspiration of King's
early-'60s Brill Building days.

A few tunes, especially
Fire And Rain, were reduced to fond memories, though, by their unwavering duplication.

King also relegated a couple of her biggest hits to uneventful readings, especially
It's Too Late, which varied only with its jazzy interlude.

Taylor's voice was up to the task no matter the tune, his soulful voice in fine form.

King made up for a voice that is thinning and raspier than ever with a lot of spirit. Although
the rasp and her slipping intonation might have tainted a few songs, the gospel-based tunes rode
high on the breaks and flaws.